


The Little Place

by KittyHowell



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: AU, Danny's a cop, F/M, M/M, McDanno AU, Steve and Charlie bonding too, Steve owns a kid's gym, but also a Charlie and Danno bonding fic, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 19:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13173573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyHowell/pseuds/KittyHowell
Summary: When Danny finds out Charlie is his kid, he's furious that Rachel lied to him. More so, he's upset that he missed out on so much that he did. His attempts at bonding blow up in his face until he tries out kid gym classes. Danny actually ends up enjoying the classes. It only has a little bit to do with the hot teacher.





	The Little Place

**Author's Note:**

> The Little Place gym is based on a real place that is awesome for little kids. The story itself is all fiction.

Danny is more than furious when he finds out that Charlie is really his child. The kid is two and a half when Rachel finally tells him. Two and half years, thirty months, several holidays and birthdays, and every little minute in between gone forever. 

Rachel is speaking but Danny can only think about all the times he’s picked up Grace and Charlie had walked past him without sparing a glance. How Charlie was in the car, playing with a toy whenever Rachel dropped Grace off. 

Danny had to force himself to push it all away because Charlie needs him to. Through his thoughts he registers the reason that Rachel is finally telling him the truth. It might make Danny angry later, that she’s only telling the truth because she really has to, but Charlie needs him to focus, so he does. 

Of course he gets tested to see if he’s enough of a match and by some miracle he is. So he donates his bone marrow and the doctors say they’re both going to be okay. Danny cries when he gets to hold Charlie for the first time after the surgery. His son is going to be okay. He already loves him. Maybe he always has. 

The problem really comes after. Rachel is staying with Step-Stan and that’s more than okay with Danny, really, but it causes a lot of tension. Even more so than before. Charlie also has spent the first two and a half years not knowing that Danny is important to his life and it’s hard for a kid that age to wrap his head around the idea that he now has two father’s. 

Danny is having trouble bonding with Charlie. Everything he tries to do blows up in his face. He takes Charlie to the zoo but the kid doesn’t even look at him the whole time. He seems fascinated in the animals but keeps wanting to show ‘mommy and daddy’ and they ‘aren’t there’. Danny tries taking him to the beach, but Charlie pouts the whole time because that’s ‘daddy’s favorite!’. Grace gives him a pity look every time. Danny figures if it’s that bad that Grace is looking at him like that, he needs to change tactics. 

It’s only when he’s picking Grace up from her dance class because neither Rachel or Step-Stan can that he sees the brochure for the business. He picks it up and flips through it, mostly trying to look busy since he’s fifteen minutes early and class hasn’t ended yet. In addition to the dance and gymnastics classes that Grace does, they have parent and kid classes. There’s a class on Thursday nights at 5:30 for Charlie’s age group. Danny isn’t sure what the class is really for, but if random bonding isn’t working, then maybe a consistent weekly thing will. 

Danny thinks he can swing it, even if he can’t keep Charlie overnight each time. He signs up before he can change his mind.

...

Danny regrets this decision the moment he walks in the door. 

Rachel thinks it’s a wonderful idea and moves things around so Danny can have Charlie on Thursdays. Their make a plan so Charlie will stay the night and then on Friday on Danny’s weekends, he’ll pick up Grace. Or Grace will just come with them on Thursdays depending on everyone’s schedules. This way, Danny can have some alone time with Charlie and Rachel can have alone time with Grace. Danny makes a mental note to have some alone time with Grace too at some point. He knows this is all hard on her too and he can’t stand the thought of her feeling left out. 

The class is...crazy. Apparently Thursday nights are always this way, which makes Danny sick to his stomach. He watches the toddlers run around the room, playing with legos and toy grocery store carts and food and almost takes Charlie and bolts. But Charlie runs off, quickly joining in the fun and Danny is left standing there with Grace.

“Well, I’m gonna go practice in the dance room.” 

“What,” Danny grabs her arms before she can go, “You can’t leave me here!” 

“Relax, Danno,” Grace reassures, “they’re just toddlers. I was one once.” 

“Yes, you were.” Danny looks around the room again. “But you were just one child and I’m pretty sure you were never this crazy.” 

Grace only shrugs. “Good luck.” 

The blond watches her go, his hands finding his hips. It’s only after she’s gone and he looks around the room again that he realizes that this isn’t even the class. It’s just the lobby to enjoy before the class. 

Again, he thinks about making a run for it but then he catches Charlie across the room. He’s playing with a little girl with red hair. Their laughing as they smash two small elephants together. Danny couldn’t break that up for anything, so instead, he signs them in and sits down next to the other parents. Well, other moms. There are only moms here. Great. 

“Hi,” he says, smiling and nodding to the other ladies. There are six of them there, but thirteen kids in total running around. A couple are too old for the class, older siblings like Grace that got dragged along. There’s also two sets of twins and a baby no more than one sitting at the child size table throwing more Cheerios than he’s eating. 

Looking at them and the moms, he can tell who belongs to who. Except for one little girl. It looks like she’s a little young for the class, though probably by only a few months. She isn’t attached to any mom or other child. Just playing with the other kids while remaining independent. 

“Joanie,” a man calls out suddenly. Danny’s attention is snapped to him. He’s tall, very attractive, and just his type. Danny doesn’t think anything could ever happen but he’s happy there’s another dad in the class. 

That’s when he realizes the man is wearing a shirt with the company logo on it. 

“Alright, my wolves! It’s time for class, come on in!” He opens the door and the kids, excluding Charlie, run in. He seems confident and focused, but also friendly. The moms there seem pleased with him, each one giving off vibes whether they knew it or not. 

Charlie was still playing in the legos so Danny scooped him up to bring him into the room. He’s surprised when Charlie lets out an annoyed scream and starts squirming. Danny can feel the teacher’s eyes on them and he can barely bring himself to look up and meet the teacher’s eyes as they walk past him through the door. The teacher looks amused and Danny wants to punch him. 

Charlie continues to throw a fit when Danny places him on the ground just inside the door. He steps out of the way so the teacher can close it. Danny was never very good at dealing with tantrums, but luckily no one seems to be paying them any mind. The kids are sitting on a large mat, while their parents sit further behind them. 

“Alright wolves,” the teacher says loudly as he walks towards the group. He grabs a bucket of bells and sits down in the middle of the madness. “I’m Mr. Steve and we’re going to start out today by doing our welcome song, then a warm up. Then we’ll get into the skills for this week.” He starts to pass around the bells, two to each kid. 

Charlie gets up and starts running around the big room, testing out the low to the ground beams and mats. Danny might have been embarrassed with the only kid not behaving but he’s too busy wondering how the others got their kids to behave. When another kid suddenly focuses on Charlie and then suddenly takes off, Danny cringes. “Sorry, my kids a bad influence.” 

Steve laughs. “It's the age of exploration.” 

Danny isn’t sure what to do, but the mom of the kid who ran off is still sitting there so he goes and joins them. He feels dumb and has to bite his lip from saying something smart as Steve hands him two bells. 

“Alright guys,” Steve starts, “we’re going to go around the room and introduce our little ones.” They went around the room, Danny being forced to introduce Charlie when Steve asked “who’s that energetic guy?” After, he asked the kids to pick you their bells. “Alright, let’s shake them up high!” 

The runaway runs back, grabs his bells and starts to shake them in the air along with the other kids. Some of the moms are doing the same. Danny just holds his bells, feeling uncomfortable as he watches his son from the corner of his eye. 

Eventually, Charlie comes to join them. He sits next to Danny. He doesn’t want the bells but he watches Steve and the others shake the bells with a confused expression. 

“Can we clean the bells up, please?” At least Charlie helps with that. “Okay, I’m gonna start the music. It’s warm up time.” 

The rest of the class went by in a blur. Danny spent the whole forty five minutes either being confused, embarrassed, or both. Charlie threw tantrum after tantrum, refused to do the warmups or skills, and then didn’t share well when the kids had open activity. Danny did his best to correct bad behavior but two year olds will be two year olds at times. 

The other parents glanced at them every so often and gave reassuring smiles. A couple told him how cute Charlie was. Danny just smiled and said thank you, wanting to grab Charlie and bolt. 

When the class finally, finally ended, Danny never wanted to come back. He was walking up to the counter to cancel the contract when someone grabbed his arm gently. He turned quickly and froze upon having to crane his neck up to look at who it was. At seeing the hazel eyes of the teacher staring back at him, he felt his mouth go dry. 

“Charlie seems like a fun guy,” Steve says, smiling. It takes another moment before he lets go of Danny’s arm, like he knows Danny is read to bolt. “I’m sure you’re overwhelmed right now. It’s normal. I promise it gets better if you want to continue.” 

Before Danny can answer, Steve is calling for the kids to line up and get stamps. Everyone does except for Charlie, who watches curiously while he plays with legos in the corner. Everyone puts their shoes back on, but the moms linger to speak to Steve who seems to smile at all the right times. 

Grace comes back out, and having no reason to stay, Danny cleans up the mess Charlie has made and scoops him up. Charlie immediately freaks out and Danny thinks, “never again” as he opens the door and lets Grace go out before him. He catches Steve’s eye and encouraging smile. 

Maybe one more class. 

...

The second class goes a little bit better, but not by much. 

Charlie goes in with the rest of class but still refuses to do the warmup. He does the skills only because Steve makes an effort to track him down and bring him to the station. Charlie actually likes walking along the beam, holding onto Steve with one arm. He hurried across the narrow bar and practically jumped off. 

Steve’s grip on Charlie kept him from falling, thankfully. Danny felt his knees go weak for just a second. He wondered if that would ever go away. The feeling of your legs giving out whenever your child is doing something that could hurt them. Considering it still happened when Grace did anything remotely terrifying, Danny didn’t have a lot of hope. 

He watched, amused, when Charlie ran back around the beam to go up again. The other kids had all already gone, so Steve smiled and helped Charlie up the stairs. This time when he walked across, Steve had him walk backwards. At the end, he helped turn him towards Danny. 

“You’re a natural, Charlie,” Steve beamed at him. “Now let's make a big jump to daddy! One, two, three!” Steve made a whooshing sound as he grabbed Charlie around the waist and launched the little boy into Danny’s arms.

Danny smiled at Charlie, who beamed back happily. When he grabbed him, his fingers overlapped onto Steve’s and he felt a warm pulse go through his body. When he looked up to meet Steve’s eyes, he was grinning. Danny couldn’t be 100% sure, but he thinks that Steve’s ears are red at the tips. 

He doesn’t want to linger, so he tears his eyes away and for the first time noticed the tattoos on Steve’s arms. He studies them for just a moment before following Charlie, who wiggled out of Danny’s grip and ran. 

Danny doesn’t know much about military, but he recognizes a military tattoo when he sees one. He wonders, not for the first time, what Steve is doing here. There’s that little girl running around again, younger than Charlie with no parent. She seems attached to Steve, so Danny figures she must belong to him. Maybe he volunteers to do this class? Maybe he just wanted out of the service. It’s Steve’s business, so Danny pushes it out of his mind and Army climbs under the bars with Charlie until Steve passes out the balls and started blowing bubbles. 

Steve crosses the room quickly, blowing bubbles in one area for a minute and then rushing to the opposite corner to blow more. “Remember parents, this exercise is to see how our wolves do following the teacher, so just stay where you are.” 

At the end of class, Charlie helps clean up but throws a fit once he has to leave the room. Steve hosts him into his lap in one of the tiny chairs and gives him stamps on each foot, hand, and one on his belly for good measure. Charles giggles before running off to play. 

Danny decides to let him play for a couple minutes before leaving. Grace hasn’t joined them yet and he wants to talk to Steve. He waits until all the women get their fill before moving in. It’s only when he gets there that he realizes he has nothing to say. 

Luckily, Steve does, “Hey, it’s good to see you back. I was worried I wouldn’t after your first class. I know it can be difficult.” 

“It was,” Danny rubs the back of his neck, “but today was a little better.” 

“It’ll keep getting better. I promise you every child here was like Charlie in the beginning.”

“How long do you think it’ll take before he’s more like the others?” If he has a grumpy tone, it really can’t be helped. 

Steve smiles, slapping a hand on his shoulder. “Hopefully sooner rather than later, right?” His smile kinda irritates him, but it also makes him think of how beautiful the other man is. 

Grace comes then, so Danny gets Charlie ready and they go. 

…

Three weeks go by and Charlie gets a little better every time. He pays more attention to Steve, actually does the skills, and Danny really feels like they’re bonding. Steve includes Danny in the skills as much as possible. Charlie has taken to following Steve around. He seems to enjoy spending time with Steve almost as much as he does with Danny. After, Danny talks to Steve. He can’t be sure of it, but he thinks Steve has started to blow off some of the moms to talk to him. 

Charlie starts to call him daddy. 

Due to a case, they don’t make it to the next class. Danny isn’t sure who’s more disappointed, Charlie or himself. 

…

Charlie is excited to go to class the next Thursday. Danny is happy to find that Charlie doesn’t blame him for not going and still calls him daddy when he walked into get him. He suspects Grace had something to do with making him understand. Not for the first time, Rachel sends Grace along with them. She’s come almost every time and Danny can’t complain because he loves spending time with her but he can’t help but feel annoyed with his ex that she isn’t doing what she said she would. He says nothing about it because he doesn’t want to fight. 

Charlie holds Grace’s hand and together they run into the building when they get there, leaving Danny in their dust. Grace goes off to practice and Charlie with Joanie, the little girl that Danny figures must be Steve’s. He never asks about her even though he’s dying to know. 

A young blonde is sitting at the desk when they go in. Danny checks them in, then looks around but doesn’t see Steve. 

“Steve is in the back,” the blonde says with a smile. Danny frowns at her but her smile only gets wider. 

The door is already open to allow the wolves into the back room. When it comes time, a parents mentions for her twins to go and everyone follows. Except Charlie, who seeme to be in his own world. Danny finds this odd but doesn’t comment. Sometimes there’s no point in commenting to a two year old. Instead, he grabs Charlie’s hand to lead him into the room. It’s a surprise when Charlie screams and runs away, only to start playing with a pink toy grocery cart as if nothing happened. 

Danny rolls his eyes, grabs Charlie up and brings him into the room. It’s like the first day all over again, except worse, because now everyone knows Charlie is really acting up and Danny has no idea why. He does know that if he follows Charlie around, he’s just encouraging his behavior so he goes and sits in the circle with the moms. He raises an eyebrow when Steve hands him bells and motions for him to use them, unable to hide his smile upon seeing Steve’s smirk. 

Charlie refuses to do any of the skills, so Danny spends most of class running after him. Charlie asks him to jump on the air track and other parents do it but he’s not sure he can, despite Charlie’s pleading look. Danny catches Steve’s eyes and the slight gleam there and just as he says, “what are you…,” Steve jumps forward, taking Danny down with him. Together they land on an empty part of the air track. 

Both Steve and Charlie were laughing, but Danny was trying hard to catch his breath from where he landed under Steve. Charlie giggled, happily running and jumping on top of Steve. “Steve,” Charlie giggled, then wiggles over until he was in Danny’s arms, “daddy!” 

“Well aren’t you cute,” one of the moms said, smiling as she looked down at them. 

Steve grins. 

Danny snorts. “Don’t encourage him.” He playfully elbows Steve’s side as he gets up. Steve touches his hair in response. 

“Alright, wolves,” Steve laughs when the other kids swarm him, “it’s time for stamps!” 

Charlie once again refuses stamps so Danny just gets him ready to go but allows him to continue to play when he’s done. When Steve is finished, he comes and sits next to him. 

“An apology would be nice,” Danny says with hidden amusement. 

“I have nothing to apologize for,” Steve says back, then looks almost serious. “It can be hard when you miss a week. Charlie is still getting used to things.” 

“He doesn’t want to leave. I keep telling him there’s next week.” 

Steve cringes, “Actually, we’re closed next week. They are remodeling a bit.” 

“Of course,” Danny can’t help his groan. 

“But, uh…” Steve starts, handing one of the business cards over. Danny turns it over and finds Steve’s number on the back. “Sometimes private lessons work...at a local park. Just let me know when and where to meet you. If you’re interested.” 

Steve gets up and goes to the front desk, talking happily with the blonde who is now holding Joanie. 

Danny is not sure what to make of this. 

...

The weekend goes by quickly. It’s Monday, and he figures if he’s going to text Steve he should do it sooner rather than later. The problem is he isn’t sure if he’s going to at all yet. 

He weighs his options. On one hand, Steve might have meant nothing by it. On the other, why would he have had his phone number written down already? If Steve is interested in him, Danny would consider that a good thing. He is...very interested in Steve. He wants to know more about him. This would be a great opportunity. Charlie seems to really like him also. So there’s that. But then what if Steve isn’t interested? What if he is but it doesn’t work out? Could Danny keep going to the classes? Charlie would be sad otherwise, so yes, he’d have to. 

Grace came skipping into the living, all bright smiles and eyes. “Hey Danno,” she says, giving him a small hug before grabbing her music player. “You thinking about texting Steve?” 

“How on earth would you know that?” 

“You have aneurysm face.”

“I have what?” If Danny sounds offended, it’s because he is. 

“Aneurysm face,” Grace giggles back, “it’s the same look Steve gets when he’s trying to figure out how to talk to you.” 

“That’s Mr. Steve to you,” he says back but he’s not sure why. 

Grace rolls her eyes. “Loverboy, just text him. You’ll survive.” 

“Go to your room,” Danny shoots back, but smiles

…

Grace decides not to come to the meet up at the last minute as Danny is picking Charlie up. Danny is actually happy about this but says nothing. Instead, Rachel suggests a mom and daughter spa day and Grace is more than excited for that. Step-Stan comes into the room to grab a pen while he’s on the phone. He pauses, waves at Danny, and moves on. For the first time, Danny realizes that the tension isn’t so bad anymore.

The drive to the park is a silent one. Charlie is entertained by his dinosaurs and Danny hates listening to music when he has the kid in the car seat. Charlie is still backward facing and that is where he will stay until he’s ready, no matter the inconvenience or annoyance from Rachael. 

Steve is already there when Danny pulls up. He watches, smiling, as Danny gets Charlie out of the car. When Charlie sees Steve, he takes off towards him and Danny lets him. “Hey, big guy,” Steve says, picking him up and twirling him around. When he stops, he looks at Danny, clears his throat and says, “Hi.” Danny chalks up the breathlessness to the spinning around. 

“Hey,” Danny says back, running his fingers through his hair. He’s not sure what to do, really. 

“I was thinking we could start over here,” Steve began, pointing to part of the playground that could pass as a ramp. “Charlie does well forward and backward but I want him to go sideways today. Then, I brought some mats so we can practice some flips. Also, he’s been a little shy on the bar so I thought we could use the ones they have here and see if it’s less pressure for him.” 

Danny is impressed with how well throughout it all is. “Y-yeah, yeah. Sounds good.” 

Charlie spends a good ten minutes trying to get walking sideways down on the balance beam. When he gets frustrated, Steve changes it to walking backward for a moment to give him a moment. It isn’t until they’re moving on to the mats that Danny realizes that Joanie is not with them. He probably left her with his wife or girlfriend or something. 

“You have aneurism face,” Steve tells him, “you trying to steal my thunder?” 

Danny means to shoot something back at him but instead he blurts, “Where’s Joanie?” At Steve’s confused expression, he continues. “She is yours, right? I mean I noticed she never really has a parent with her. Just you, so…”

“She is mine,” Steve says, “well, no. She isn’t. In class she is, I mean.” Steve shakes his head, chuckling softly. “Let me start again. Joanie is my niece. My sister adopted her a couple months ago. My sister…you met her. The blonde at the desk sometimes. Mary.”  
Danny does not see the resemblance at all, but he accepts the answer all the same. “Must be nice to bring your kid to work.”

“I am a very understanding boss.” 

“Yeah, you...wait, what? Boss?”

Steve laughs then, letting Charlie go after his third roll so he can run and play on the slides. “I own the building.”

“...I was unaware of that.” 

Steve shrugs. “It fell into my lap completely by accident after I left the Navy. Basically, my dad was helping out with everything before he passed. Loved kids, loved to be around them. He died, and the owner was being forced to sell. I was basically told there wouldn’t be a Little Place for the kids to come to if an offer wasn’t made within the next two days. Now we’re here.” 

Danny processes the information for a moment, then decides to risk it. “Are private lessons just part of being a good owner or….?”

Steve sets his hands on his hips, huffs out a laugh. “No, I, uh. I’ve never done this before.” 

“So why are you now?” 

“I really like Charlie,” Steve starts, glancing over his shoulder to check where the kid is. It’s a closed in space so he can’t run off but there are still places he can fall from if he isn’t careful. “And you. I like you.” 

Danny means to say something meaningful, or at least kinda flirty but all that comes out is, “yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Charlie comes running back at this point, deciding he’s ready to test out the bars. Steve grabs him up and takes him over. Danny immediately follows and as Steve flips Charlie over the bar, Danny asks, “Have dinner with us tonight?” 

“I’d really like that.” 

…

Danny is once again glad that Grace decided to stay with her mom this week. Danny loves her and wants her around as much as possible but she’s a smart girl and he’s pretty sure she is very aware of his feelings for Steve. She isn’t above making a comment about it. She’s petty like that. She gets it from him, he knows all too well. 

Steve follows Danny back to his apartment. Because it was just going to be Danny and Charlie originally, Danny was only planning on making hotdogs for dinner. He thinks he needs to step up his game when they enter the apartment because there are toys and clothes thrown around the living room because, oh yeah, he rarely cleans enough to keep up with the tornado that is Charlie. 

Steve doesn’t seem to mind at all. He even plops himself on the floor right next to Charlie and the two begin to play. Danny puts away the hot dogs and pulls out the chicken he was going to meal prep with later that night. 

Italian chicken is easy and needs little prep, so h puts the chicken in a ziplock bag and adds the dressing before sticking it back in the fridge. Then he preheats the oven and gets out sweet potatoes and broccoli. He cuts the broccoli from the stem and then pokes holes in the sweet potato so he can just cook them in the microwave. 

While he waits for the oven, he grabs two water bottles and a juice box before joining Charlie and Steve on the floor of the living room. There’s a new energy in the room. Danny can feel it in the air and in his spine whenever he and Steve accidentally brush up against each other. It’s filled with unspoken words and nervousness. 

Charlie is talking happily about his dinosaurs. Sometimes Danny can barely keep up with him or understand. Steve looks a little lost but is keeping up okay. 

“Danno, when is dinner done?” 

At hearing his son call him Danno for the first time, Danny actually freezes. He can feel the tears in his eyes and Steve staring with a raised eyebrow. He pulls himself together. “Not long, buddy.” The oven goes off to alert him it’s ready, so he gets up and goes back into the kitchen. 

For a moment, he just stands there and listens to the sounds of Steve and Charlie playing and thinks, I have a son. 

He sets to work. He takes the chicken out of the fridge and arranges it on the pan. He adds the broccoli and sprinkles salt, pepper, and olive oil on it before sticking it in the oven and setting the timer. 

He stays in the kitchen because he’s not ready to go back out. After several minutes, he starts the potatoes and then ventures back out with nothing left to keep him occupied. 

Charlie has Steve on the couch now. They’re flipping through a book that lists a thousand different types of vehicles. Charlie is pointing to each one, and Steve is reading what it is. 

Usually, Charlie helps set the table but Danny doesn’t want to disturb the pair. They really seem to like each other and it gives Danny a little hope in everything. 

When the oven beeps again, Steve nudges Charlie off the couch. “Show me where the bathroom is, buddy, we gotta wash up.” 

Charlie is clean when they sit at the table and dinner is filled with Charlie talking about anything and everything. He asks Steve a million questions and calls Danny Danno three more times by the time they’re cleaning up the dishes. Half the stuff he says doesn’t make any sense and the other half is filled with mistakes but Steve nods and answers what he can happily.

After, Steve clears off the table while Danny gets Charlie ready for bed. He needs a bath after the park and it takes a village to get the keep calm enough to sleep. Forty five minutes later, Danny returns to the living room. He’s happy to see Steve is still there. He’s helped himself to a beer and he’s making himself busy by flipping through the day's newspaper at the table. Danny notices that the dishes are clean. 

“You didn’t have to clean the dishes.” 

“Navy habit,” Steve says in response, smiling up at Danny from his spot. 

“So it was the Navy, huh?” He motions to the tattoo on Steve’s arm. It’s actually kinda ugly from far away but it looks better as he gets closer. Steve’s smile widens and Danny realizes it’s because he got a lot closer to him. 

“I was in for about twelve years.” 

“Impressive. I’m not sure I could live on a boat. I hate the water.” 

Steve wrinkles his nose slightly at the wrong terminology but decides something else is much more offensive. “How could you hate water?” 

Danny shrugs. “It’s just not all that, is what I’m saying.” 

“Only freaks hate the water.” 

“Then call me a freak.” 

They’re avoiding now and they both know it. Steve decides to avoid for just a little longer. “Why does Charlie and Grace call you Danno?” 

Danny rubs the back of his neck because he knows where this is going. He’s never mentioned to Steve the situation that technically brought them together. “When Grace was a little girl, she tried to say my name but it just came out Danno. Called me it ever since.” 

“Was today the first time Charlie called you it?” 

Danny takes a deep breath as he sits next to Steve. “Yes. Um, up until a couple months ago, Charlie didn’t know I was his father.” 

Steve raises an eyebrow and leans forward. “My ex-wife Rachel...we had Grace a couple years before we divorced. She then got married to this other guy, Stan.” 

Danny pauses. He’s more than a little nervous to continue. It’s not exactly the greatest moment in his life. It’s probably the lowest he’d ever been. 

“They hit a rough spot in their marriage and I’m not proud of it but we started to see each other again. Rachel got pregnant. She told me Charlie was mine but then later told me that he was Stan’s and I believed her. I’m trying to catch up on lost time. Bond more. That’s why we joined the class.”

Steve presses his lips together before the phase “What a bitch” leaves his mouth like it almost did. “That is, uh, wow.” 

Danny nods. “Everything is over between us now, except that we have children together, obviously. Stan is still in the picture, too. We’re civil.” 

“That’s good.” Steve is impressed. “So she just randomly told you?” 

At this, Danny laughs. “Uh, no. Charlie was...well, he was diagnosed with this disease called HLH. He needed bone marrow and Grace and Rachel weren’t matches.” 

This time, Steve can’t help the phase. “What a bitch.”

Danny laughs. “I thought so too, for a bit. But, we both made our mistakes. I’m sorry for it, but I don’t regret it. Charlie came of it and I don’t regret him.” 

“So is he better now?” 

“Oh, yeah,” Danny nods. He leans back in his seat, checks the time. “So, uh,” 

Steve takes a drink of his beer, his tongue poking out and licking the rim before it reaches his lips. 

Danny actually has to shake himself to focus. “I have Charlie on Thursday for class but he goes home Friday. It’s Rachel’s weekend. If you’re not busy, would you like to, uh, do something with me then?” 

He’s having a hard time looking up and meeting Steve’s eyes. Danny doesn’t like feeling vulnerable, especially in front of Steve. He’s surprised when Steve reaches forward and takes his hand. “I would like that a lot.” 

Danny feels like an idiot because the next word out of his mouth is, “yeah?”

Steve laughs. “Yeah.” 

It’s late now and they both have work in the morning so Danny walks Steve to his truck. 

“I’ll see you Thursday.” 

It surprises Danny but it’s an extremely pleasant feeling when Steve leans forward and kisses him softly. Steve pulls back but Danny pulls him back in and places his hands on either side of Steve’s face. 

“See you Thursday.” 

…

A year later, Charlie adjusts well to now having three fathers.


End file.
